The inside track from Progressio's International development experts
With less than two weeks to go until the Parliament debate discussing the commitment to spend 0.7% of our Gross National Income (GNI) on Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), Progressio is calling on its supporters to write to their MP to help defend UK Aid.
We would like to express a special and heart-felt thank you for all your generous support over 2016, we are really grateful to you all. As you know, the last year has been a difficult year for Progressio despite the many achievements of our programmatic work, International Citizen Service (ICS) volunteer placements, and campaigns and policy work. Please see our Annual Review if you would like to learn more about some of the highlights from our work over 2016.
Thank you so much to all of our supporters who took our recent campaign action by signing our petition asking the UK government to engage with the process of creating a binding treaty on business and human rights. We were able to hand in over 600 signatures to the Prime Minister before the meeting.
In less than a month’s time the second meeting of the Intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights will convene in Geneva to discuss a binding treaty proposed by the UN Human Rights Council, on Business and Human Rights.
International development charity Progressio has announced it is embarking on a period of consultation with staff, funders, supporters and partner organisations about the possibility of closure. The charity’s trustees took the decision to launch the consultation due to concerns about long-term financial sustainability.
Martin McEnery, the charity’s Chair, made the following statement:
Fiona Mwashita, Southern Africa Sub-Regional Manager for Progressio, describes how our Action for Better Governance Project is supporting communities to advocate for change.
Marcelina González (Bélgica) and Martina Cabrera (Marta) consider themselves ‘sisters in unity’, because they have been ‘celebrating the good and fighting to change the bad’ for more than a decade in their local community; the Cuesta Linda neighbourhood of the Santo Domingo Norte municipality.
Father James Williams, from the Parish of St Lawrence and St Paul, in Clifton Diocese, took part in Progressio’s fundraising challenges ‘ZimFast’ and ‘ZimFare’, by fasting for six days on a nutritionally poor and repetitive Zimbabwean diet for ZimFast, and hosting a Zimbabwean-themed meal for ZimFare. This was both to fundraise for Progressio, and in order to stand in solidarity with people living in poverty. He said:
In an isolated area in the Dominican Republic, Progressio has been working with a local partner, Solidaridad Fronteriza, to support people like Ramona to find ways of adapting to the challenges of climate change, deforestation and drought. The cross-border project promotes food security and sustainable agriculture.
